William E. Deal

Timothy Kandler Beal

'Theory for Religious Studies' takes major theoretical writers in the humanities & social sciences, & explains their relevance to the study of religion.

Theory for Religious Studies

The author of Roadside Religion traces the evolution of the Bible from a collection of hand-written scrolls to the focus of a multi-billion-dollar business, covering subjects ranging from Christianity's pre-Bible period to the myriad versions that have existed.

The Unexpected History of an Accidental Book

The Rise and Fall of the Bible

The Book of Hiding offers a fluent and erudite analysis of the parallels between the Bible and contemporary discussions of gender, ethnicity and social ambiguity. Beal focuses particularly on the traditionally marginalised book of Esther, in order to examine closely the categories of self and other in relation to religion, sexism, nationalism, and the ever-looming legacies and future possibilities of annihilation. Beal applies the critical tools of contemporary theorists, such as Cixous, Irigaray and Levinas, challenging widely held assumptions about the moral and life-affirming message of Scripture and even about the presence of God in the book of Esther. The Book of Hiding draws together a variety of different perspectives and disciplines, creating a unique space for dialogue raising new questions and reconsidering old assumptions, which is profoundly interesting and well-articulated.

Gender, Ethnicity, Annihilation, and Esther

The Book of Hiding

Walter Brueggemann

Tod Linafelt

This volume engages the work of Walter Brueggemann, most of which has been published by Fortress Press. The volume centers on the character of God in the text of the Old Testament as a site of theological tension and even ambivalence. Biblical faith never experiences God as entirely above the fray but rather as entangled in history, astonishingly transformative, and impinged upon by the voices of the suffering. Brueggemann's monumental Theology of the Old Testament addresses this fact with great theological insight and rigor, and the internationally renowned biblical scholars writing here engage and extend his insights into the "unsettled Character . . . at the center of the text."

A Tribute to Walter Brueggemann

God in the Fray

A fun, revealing compendium of roadside religious curiosities spans the U.S. in search of religious oddities, from the World's Largest Ten Commandments to the Golgotha Fun Park, to Bill Rice's "Cross Garden," which features thousands of crosses bearing the message "NO ICE WATER IN HELL! FIRE HOT!"

In Search of the Sacred, the Strange, and the Substance of Faith

Roadside Religion

BEAL

Publisher description: Timothy K. Beal writes about the monsters that lurk in our religious texts, and reveals how monsters and religion are irrevocably entwined. According to Beal, we can learn something about religion by getting to know its monsters, and we can learn something about monsters by investigating their religious roots. As Timothy Beal follows monsters throughout religious texts and traditions, he also discovers religion lurking in the modern horror genre, from classics like Frankenstein and Dracula to the contemporary spookiness of H.P. Lovecraft's short stories and the Hellraiser films. Drawing upon a broad range of ancient texts and popular culture, from rabbinic lore to Goth counterculture, he explores the fascinating and often disturbing ways in which monsters haunt religion and religion haunts the monstrous.

Timothy Kandler Beal

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